Before going down this worm hole, as I sit here like Perez Hilton writing this in a bowling center, I want to preface it with a few things. 1. If you are reading this, we share a unique bond….bowling. Because of that, I love you and wish you the best in your bowling career. 2. There isn’t a person in Memphis that is as invested, passionate and loves this sport in all its shapes and sizes as much as I do with the exception of maybe 1. I welcome you to challenge that. Bowling is my life. I literally go to sleep thinking of something bowling related, and wake up thinking of something bowling related. Bowling in its purest form is beautiful poetry to me. I have never hesitated to help anyone that asked. My love for bowling has affected my life decisions, my relationships and my overall demeanor at times. I regret some of the negative results that have spawned from this, but I don’t regret my love for bowling 1 bit. Having said that, that doesn’t mean I am always right or that my knee jerk reactions aren’t sometimes uncalled for, just means I am passionate.
Buckle up, this is going to be a long winded educated rant.
Lets all 1st agree that bowling, bowling culture and the priority of bowling in 2025 is not the same as 1970. The model used in 1970 will not work today, and a bowling center can’t survive using that same model. Professional bowling can’t survive under that same model, and it’s been proven. If you don’t adapt, you will perish. There were approximately 12,000 bowling centers in 1970……we are down to approximately 2600. If you don’t think there is a fundamental reason for this stop reading.
We are a community, a family. Much like most families we don’t always get along, we fight and bicker. At the end of the day we should all want to further bowling and improve it. Take it to new heights. Unfortunately, also like most families, we don’t handle criticism well. Our loyalty is to the sport and the integrity of it, not to a particular center. Don’t kid yourself, there are NOT enough bowlers to go around. What Memphis can’t afford, is to lose another center.
Recently a new league formed at Bartlett (sorry, it will always be Bartlett, not Bowlero). This should be a good thing, its growth, it was not received that way. Instead it was met with name calling, lies, false accusations and childhood antics. We wonder why bowling is in a decline. As league bowlers we are delusional. Why do the core of us compete. Bowling is very unique. While it shares a LOT of similarities to golf, tennis and billiards, it has its own unique characteristics. League bowling has direct, instant gratification in front of all your peers. In golf not everyone is at the same location at the same time. There are groupings spanning 18 holes across 200 acres. Tennis has matches simultaneously across numerous courts that are usually segregated. I am on lane 6 competing and I can walk down to lane 20 to watch someone punch out in the 10th for 300. They get to celebrate and be celebrated in front of everyone. Young kids get to see that and now hold that individual in a high regard, see them in a different light.
We take our bowling very personal. We take pride in our craft, and we are very ego driven. League bowling is one of the very few activities where you can walk into the venue and get the feeling Woody Harrelson expressed when he walked into the National Bowling Stadium and said, “Welcome to my Church. It’s kind of intimidating to be in the presence of so many great athletes.” The bowling center is our sanctuary, our place of comfort, a place of Zen. The only other local sport/activity I know of that experiences that instant “Elite” god like status when you walk into the room/venue is auto racing. “Look kids, there is Dale Howard”, or in our case, “what lane is Aaron on tonight”.
We all want to shine, show off and stroke our ego. If you think I am wrong, you’re lying to yourself. Well, chatter began as early as Christmas that a new league may start at Bartlett in the fall. Numerous people were not happy with the Wednesday Mens League at Billy Hardwicks. Not all of the reasons were related to the center or employees themselves. Sometimes you just need a new setting, or you’ve moved and Bartlett is closer to you or you don’t care for certain teams. Sometimes it is the center. Don’t like the area, things have taken place that you don’t agree with, money came up missing (that would NEVER happen in Memphis), or the culture has changed in the center.
For me personally, I love the excitement, the rush. I know Lucas Hartigan is going to beat me 6 or 7 out of 10 times, but that won’t stop me from wanting to go head to head with him. I personally have never backed down from a challenge. People don’t bowl action anymore in Memphis. We use to have Imperial and Cherokee open all night where we could pot bowl anytime…and they did. How many recently have actually put money up locally, shut up or put up. Go ahead, I will wait for your answer…… ME. Others have partaken in the events, but they were events I put together. I have put up $200 (won), $300 (won but we all know who didn’t pay. We call him NO Rings), $500 (won, to a person that drove from out of town because no one local would bowl) and even had 1 individual agree to $1000 (he didn’t show but you can ask Cameron or Lucas, they were there). Memphis is all talk, period.
In this particular case, this was MOSTLY avoidable. There was enough time, and warning that this was coming, but due diligence wasn’t taken. It really only took a sit down to possibly deescalate the situation, but as far as I know, no one from the center reached out till August. Before you knew it, it WAS August and NOW you have a problem. This wasn’t a secret and this wasn’t formulated by 1 person or even a group out to undermine anyone. That is simply FALSE. Don’t let anyone convince you that there is an unspoken rule between centers…….there simply isn’t, never has been. If that is the case, then how did Bartlett, Winchester and Billy Hardwick’s ALL have a Wednesday Night Mens leagues……AT THE SAME TIME. In fact Bartlett’s was the premier league at the time. People would jump from 1 to the other based on prize fund, or available pots/brackets or because of friends, or simply the competition.
The simple TRUTH is, there were a minimum of 5 main factors that ultimately contributed to this. 1. The mechanical state of the machinery. 2. There were issues in regards to missing money. This was brought up by numerous people many times. This was also not the 1st year in which it was mentioned either. 3. The lack of communication between the center and those that brought up issues. While the leagues are not necessarily “owned” by the house, it is the houses responsibility (if they want to retain the league) to ensure that they are run on the up and up and that they are “Happy”. It is a reflection on the house if something happens in the league and the house doesn’t at the very least get involved. Lets not forget, yes, for us it is a sport with friendships, but to the house its a business, and sometimes it’s run more like a frat house and not a business. Billy’s is uniquely run different than any other center in Memphis. 4. People simply didn’t want to walk through the smell of weed to get through the front door all while wondering if their car is going to get messed with. 5. This one bothers me the most since I’ve run a center before and I would PRIDE myself on this. You simply couldn’t find an employee when you had a ball call or an issue. Bowlers would have to go to the bar to find an employee.
I truly hate that this happened the way it did. I love bowling, my Memphis bowling community. This should have been a good thing for Memphis, competition is always good. This was new blood, a new option. Billy understood that, and you can get upset with me for saying this, but If Billy were alive, this wouldn’t have happened. I will end this with 1 final statement, if you think Bartlett was the issue (it wasn’t),or that any of the bowlers that left were the issue (they also weren’t), what are you going to do when 901 becomes the best center in Memphis starting 2026, because it IS coming.
Ego Bowling 
One response to “There’s Memphis, there’s Bowling…..Then there is Memphis Bowling”
First of all, let me say this. Please, in a respectful manner to my dear friend Billy Hardwick, it is “All Star Lanes” in this discussion not “Billy’s”, I, Donnie Acklen, admittingly say that I was one of many that saw this situation coming. The biggest reason that this center lasted as long as it did with no major problems from the mechanical side was because of the man (Pat Papke) that took a lot of pride in his work and loved and respected Billy and kept the center running just as well as he had and did the same (even the seven years that Billy resided in Forida) as it was when Billy was still with us. When Pat passed away the center has steadily lost mechanical dependability because there is no one performing “preventative maintenance” to see problems that could be developing and could be getting worse because nothing was being checked until it broke down. Many times machines have broken down in the first few frames of the first games which could possibly have been corrected and fixed before the league started practice, but no one checked anything after the morning leagues finished until it was almost time for the evening leagues to start. There has not been bowling with the “foul lights” turned on since Pat passed away because the lights and reflectors weren’t being wiped off while the lanes were being oiled because no one thought to do it therefore occasionally the foul lights would be dusty and cause the buzzers to sound and the lights to come on. Therefore, the foul lights weren’t turned on. The center’s intercom system broke down in 2019 and battery operated keypad intercoms were bought and installed for lane problems such as ball returns, pin reposts, blackouts, and ‘180’s”, deadwood, and other malfunctions. The problem with these were because hardly no one on duty kept the batteries charged in or order for the individual intercoms to work. When you’re business continues to have problems and you don’t recognize these problems and correct them from continuing to happen you create more problems. When your employees are advised of problems (not complaints) and they don’t possess the pride and professionalism to handle these problems or at least pass these advisements on to the proper personnel that can fix them, then you create more problems. When you fail to make corrections, hire dependable and caring employees, and pay attention to your business on a personal basis, it suffers, and customers see this. When you have employees that wants to tell Leagues what to do, “House Rules” are one thing, bit USBC rules run the Leagues. When you have employees that tell the Leagues what do (and they don’t read the rule as it’s written) then it’s in conflict with USBC rules, you’re going to have problems. When you have customers standing in front of your business smoking dope and smelling like a “skunk’” and according to city and state laws it’s against the law to smoke anything within 20 feet of the entrance you are technically breaking the law allowing it to happen and are responsible. When you remove the “No Weapons” sign from you entrance windows you are inviting problems because you are putting the liability on the ownership if something happens involving weapons of any kind being in your facility. I gave All Star Lanes my utmost love and support financially, brought the center a lot of business and customers, and was a loyal customer, and gave them good business advice (as my friend Billy would have) for 41 years. I am the only one that I know that has the initials “BH” on all of my bowling apparel (shirts and jackets) in remembrance of Billy and his legacy and will continue to do so out of respect and love for him. I still miss him today especially on November 16th. Even though I didn’t really understand it when someone said that if I ever left All Star Lanes a lot of people would be following me because they knew something had to be wrong, nor do I agree with that statement but, I will say this, when you lose customers, they are hard to get back. I sincerely hope good things for All Star Lanes. Although I’m disappointed and I don’t have any plans to return there, I wish everyone well.
Sincerely,
Donnie Acklen
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